Free Trapped by Isla Whitcroft Page A

its back and its limbs were trembling either through pain, fear, or both.
    As it saw the cameraman, the wretched creature pushed itself further back into its cell, scrabbling crablike in a desperate circle, before giving up and crouching back down in silent misery.
    The camera left the cage and moved on to the next one. Another distressed animal, this time an infant snow leopard, lay in the stifling darkness, without bedding or, as far as Cate could see, water or food. Next to it, panting and wheezing, was a Siberian tiger cub, its distinctive stripes almost unrecognisable under a layer of what looked like excrement. Cate felt sick. She wanted to look away but she couldn’t.
    Cate had always loved animals, even though her nomadic lifestyle had meant she was never able to have a pet of her own, and it was clear that these poor creatures were going through a trauma too awful to contemplate.
    Despite herself, Cate felt tears stinging behind her eyes. ‘Get a grip,’ she told herself crossly.
    â€˜Do you want to see any more?’ Marcus asked her quietly.
    Cate turned to him. ‘No, I get the gist,’ she said roughly, trying to hide her emotions. ‘What’s going on? Why are these animals being kept like this? What are they doing in Tendo?’
    â€˜We don’t really have the answer to those questions,’ said Marcus. ‘Animal poaching has always been a problem, you probably know that. Over the twentieth century we lost hundreds of thousands of elephants, gorillas, tigers, and that isstill going on. But now the really rare species – the Siberian tiger and the orang-utan, the ones on the verge of extinction – well, they are much more protected.
    â€˜Most of them live in reserves which are guarded and protected 24/7 with CCTV and often watchtowers. They are looked after by teams of conservationists, people who are very dedicated and very, very protective. At any one time they more or less know the whereabouts of every single one of their charges, and big money is spent making sure they don’t lose them to the bad guys. It’s worked well. The populations of these species are slowly but surely increasing, although we all know it’s going to take a long time.’
    â€˜But now?’ asked Cate.
    â€˜Exactly,’ said Marcus. ‘But now, these animals, the ones that you saw and dozens of others, are being taken from right under the noses of their protectors and disappearing. They’re young, as you saw, all tagged and microchipped. We’re losing a dozen or so a month from across Asia, Africa, even the Chinese are reporting that their giant pandas have been stolen. That’s no mean feat. The Chinese government would cheerfully execute anyone who harmed a hair of their precious pandas’ heads.
    â€˜Whoever is doing this is playing a very high risk game in some of the most dangerous countries in the world. We can pretty much guess that the smuggling is being carried out for financial gain – it always is. But is someone out there trying to build up a private zoo, or using them for some nonsensical medicinal purpose that we haven’t yet come across? We just don’t know who is behind it or why.
    â€˜But we do know that whoever it is, they are clearlyextremely well organised, well funded and know exactly what they want.’
    Cate was puzzled. ‘You said the animals are disappearing, but you know where the film was taken. And that it’s somewhere in Tendo, which is why you’re monitoring it so closely.’ She pointed at the screen. ‘So, why can’t you just charge in and rescue them?’
    â€˜If only it were that simple.’ Marcus sounded frustrated and weary. ‘For months we knew that they were going missing but had no idea where they had gone. There was no chatter on the internet, they didn’t turn up in any of the usual dodgy dealers’ hotspots, or on websites that trade in these things.