CHAPTER
ONE
âReady?â yelled Ben, pointing at the huge wave rolling towards them.
His twin sister Zoe grinned. âReady!â Lying flat on her surfboard she began to paddle with her hands, getting up speed as the swell approached. When they felt the wave lift them, they jumped up and whizzed towards the shore, arms outstretched. They were having a great week staying at Granâs cottage by the sea.
âAwesome,â exclaimed Ben, gathering up his board. âI felt like a killer shark!â
Zoe looked at him in his shiny purple wetsuit, his brown hair sticking up in salty spikes. âA killer grape more like!â she laughed.
âBen! Zoe!â
They looked up the beach to where Gran was waving at them and pointing out to sea.
They turned to see a sleek catamaran slicing towards them. A blonde woman was at the helm.
âItâs Erika!â gasped Ben, as they watched the cat spin to a sudden halt, sending spray into the air. âLooks like weâre off on another Wild adventure!â
Ben and Zoeâs parents were international vets and wherever their work took them the children usually went too. But this September they would be starting secondary school, so they had to stay in England with their gran for the summer. Theyâd been expecting six dull weeks until their godfather, Dr Stephen Fisher, had got in touch and recruited them into Wild, his top-secret organisation dedicated to saving endangered animals. Their grandmother was the only other person who knew about it.
Yelling goodbye to Gran, they swam out towards the catamaran. Erika Bohn, Uncle Stephenâs second-in-command, stretched out a hand and helped them up the ladder.
âItâs good to see you again,â Erika shouted, as they sped across the waves. âDr Fisher is really pleased with your work for Wild. This time heâs trusting you with a particularly difficult task, but as usual he wants to tell you himself.â
She handed Zoe an envelope. âHereâs your clue.â
Zoe tipped up the envelope and a glass eyeball fell into her hand. She showed it to Ben.
âDeep brown iris,â he said, inspecting it closely. âLooks almost human â except the whiteâs quite dark.â
Zoe peered at it. âDo you think itâs one of the apes? That would be so cool.â
She knew what to do next. She looked at the catamaranâs control panel and located a small hole next to the radar screen.
âLetâs find out,â she said, slipping the eyeball in.
âGreetings, godchildren!â came a voice, and the hologram of a man appeared in front of them. He wore a baseball cap over his thick red hair and his shirt hung over his trousers.
âGood old Uncle Stephen!â said Zoe. âEccentric as ever.â
âReady for a really urgent Wild mission?â asked the image. Then it chuckled. âI donât know why Iâm asking â of course you are. Never had such eager operatives as you two! Well, thereâs an orang-utan in trouble in Borneo. Tell you more when you get to HQ.â
Uncle Stephen gave a cheery wave and disappeared.
Zoe sighed. âAn orang-utan. Wow!
Theyâre such lovely, gentle creatures.â
âAnd so endangered,â added Ben. âDid you know that ââ
âTheir habitat is threatened by logging?â interrupted Zoe.
âI was going to say ââ
âThat they can use sign language? I knew that, too.â
âNo. I was about to say that theyâre more intelligent than you,â said Ben, ducking away from her friendly shove with a grin.
Ben and Zoe gazed over the rough water as a small island came into view. There were a few buildings scattered about a ramshackle farm, with chickens pecking on the scrubby land. Erika brought down the sail and steered the cat deep into the gloom underneath a battered old jetty that looked as if it hadnât been used for years. As