Ghost Leopard (A Zoe & Zak Adventure #1) (4 page)

“You were asleep for like half an hour. Are you coming back in?” Zak called out from the pool.

“In a minute,” I said, madly snapping shots. The truth was, I didn’t really want to go back in that pool. Not until I’d pulled myself together at least. It was kind of spooky that I thought I had heard an elephant god speak to me. It didn’t really matter if it had happened or not. It was just weird, either way. Zak must have gotten out of the pool, because the next time I heard his voice he was right behind me.

“Why do you like taking pictures so much?” Zak asked.

“I don’t know, I just like it,” I said. “You know about the whole magazine contest thing? The student that takes the best picture gets the entire class a trip to New York, plus a camera for themselves.”

“Nice,” Zak said. “Lots of stuff to take pictures of here.”

“I know.”

“I bet there’s even more stuff out there,” Zak said, pointing beyond the high stone walls of the garden.

“Probably.”

“What I’m saying is, this is
India
. Don’t you want to get out of this hotel? See what’s out there?”
 

I could see where this was going and I wanted to nip any infantile plan Zak had about skipping out of the hotel in the bud. My mom hadn’t told me in so many words not to leave the hotel, but I was pretty positive that,
don’t run off
, meant she wanted me to stay put. What else could it have meant? We were in a totally foreign country. It wasn’t like I could just wander down the street to a friend’s house.

“I’m going with my mom,” I said. “When the conference is over.”

“Sweet.”

I snapped another shot, this time of another monkey in the cage. It was eating a banana, but instead of peeling it from top to bottom, it peeled it from the bottom of the banana, with the stem hanging down. As I snapped the picture, I idly wondered what else was upside down in India? What frightened me was this little feeling I had in the pit of my stomach that told me that whether I wanted to or not, I was going to find out.

I noticed that there was long pause in the conversation. It was going to be a very long four days. Even though I remembered I needed to give Zak a chance, I still didn’t relish the idea. He and I were like oil and water, that was for sure. With some people, it just doesn’t matter. You can tell that however much you might want to, you just won’t get along. Oh well, at least he thought my dive was cool. My train of thought was broken by the ring of a mobile phone. I looked over my shoulder to see the ringing phone sitting on a lounge chair. A man stepped out of the pool to answer it.

I hadn’t seen the guy get into the pool. I had obviously been either A — too interested in the monkeys, or B — asleep. But I saw him now, if only from the side. The man was of medium height and very muscular. He had a fairly dark tan and wore one of those super tight, Speedo-type black bathing suits. It’s kind of rude, but I guess the thing that most stood out about the guy was his muscular butt. His butt kind of filled out his tight black Speedo like it was made of steel or something. I don’t know why, but it reminded me of a rhinoceros. I had seen this guy for two seconds, and I already knew that forever after, in my mind at least, he would be known as Rhino Butt. Rhino Butt grabbed a towel and picked up the mobile phone for a second before dropping it back down on the lounge chair.

“Yeah?” Rhino Butt said in a deep gravelly voice.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Berger, I trust your flight was a pleasant one,” a silky, smooth voice said from the phone.

OK, so I guess Rhino Butt’s real name was Berger. Didn’t matter. He was still Rhino Butt to me. He toweled off. I guess he had put the phone on speaker so he didn’t have to stop what he was doing. Busy guy.

“It was fine.”
 

“A Jeep awaits you in Moon Surrie. I expect my men have been useful to you?”
 

“As long as they keep taking orders, they can tag along,” Rhino Butt said.

“And the time frame?”

“We’re getting there.”

“Enough,” the guy on the other end of the line said. “You’re being very well paid. Have you located the Leopard?”

The muscles in Rhino Butt’s whole body tensed. “I’ve spent nine months compiling the data. I have a Ph.D. in ecogeography. I was an Army Ranger. Don’t worry,” he said, “you’ll get your Leopard.”

Rhino Butt finished toweling off and put the phone to his ear, clicking off the speaker phone. He stood there, with his back to us, obviously getting annoyed with whoever was on the other end of the line. I tried not to stare though I had to admit, the conversation was getting interesting.

 
“Yes. I’m still here,” Rhino Butt said. “And yes I know what I’m looking for, but no, of course I’ve never seen a picture of the Leopard because the Leopard’s picture has never been taken. What are you doing? Testing me? Like I said, I’ll address your concerns tomorrow. At the station.”

Rhino Butt hung up. One thing was for sure. The phone call had irritated him pretty badly. He must have sensed Zak and I were there, because he turned to look at us and I got my first good look at his face. He was old, not like super old, but at least as old as my mom. He had pock-marked skin, a crooked nose, and a balding head, but what was most obvious, besides his bulging butt, were his bulging muscles. His tanned chest was scarred and his strong arms were tattooed in blue ink with what looked like an eagle. All in all, he just looked really mean. I immediately looked away from him as though I was engrossed in the parrots. Zak looked away too, but with a little more finesse than me. Surprisingly, I thought, Zak did a pretty good job of maintaining a low profile. There we were, totally eavesdropping on this guy, and Zak had managed to basically not look guilty at all.
 

After a fleeting moment of eye contact, Rhino Butt roughly pushed aside his lounge chair and left the pool area, leaving his towel in a heap. It was when the conversation had gone to the part about this Leopard never having had its picture taken that I was hooked. Now that was interesting. With all the mobile phones, and tablets, and computers, and just regular cameras in the world, I didn’t think that there was anything left in existence that hadn’t had its picture taken. It was a strange idea.

“Whoa,” Zak said. “That guy was mad.”

“Tell me about it,” I said.

“Like crazy mad.”

“He wasn’t happy.”

“Did you see his rear end?”

“What about it?”

“He had like muscle booty or something.”

“Rhino butt,” I said.

“Mega rhino butt,” Zak said. “Just looking at it made my eyes sting. I’m going back in for a swim.”

I guess Zak thought he still needed to show off around me, or maybe he was getting me back for that perfect dive I’d made, because instead of just walking back to the pool, he made out like he was falling over and did a cart wheel. I have to admit, it was a pretty good one and if I was in a more charitable mood, I probably would have told him as much. As it was though, I was just feeling kind of irritated and a little freaked out from my dive to the bottom of the pool and all the weird dreams. After all, you have to admit that it’s not everyday that an elephant dude welcomes you to India. I don’t think Zak noticed my mood though. He was acting like he had seen something out of the corner of his eye. He walked over to Rhino Butt’s lounge chair and picked something up.

 
“Rhino Butt left this.”

Zak waved a manilla folder and a white hotel key card in a little envelope at me. The key card envelope had a room number on it, but what was interesting was the manilla folder. It had a thick piece of paper sticking out of it. As I approached Zak, I couldn’t deny that I was curious.

“We should turn it in to the front desk,” I said.

“Yeah,” Zak said. But I could tell he was curious too. Maybe more curious than me. Zak pulled the thick piece of paper out of the folder.

“You can’t do that,” I said.

“Do what?”

“Look at his stuff.”

“I’m not looking, I’m just…”

“You’re just what?”

“OK, I’m looking.”

Zak opened the folded paper. It wasn’t paper really. More like parchment, or maybe something even thicker like an animal hide. It was hard to say exactly what it was. It was smooth to the touch, but at the same time very old. On one side of it, drawn in brown ink, was a map of the mountains. They were drawn just like little triangles everywhere. There were valleys as well, and X’s marking different places on the map.

“Put it back,” I said.

“OK, OK, I just want to know what the X is.”

“If you don’t put it back, I will,” I said, taking hold of the map. “You don’t just take stuff that doesn’t belong to you.”

“Hi guys.”
 

I whirled at the man’s voice. It was Zak’s dad. He was walking toward us with my mom. I folded up the map.

“What do you have there?”

“Nothing. Just a brochure.” I dropped the map face down on the chair. I didn’t know why I’d lied. Probably because I felt guilty. But my mother didn’t seem overly interested. Instead, she seemed a little worried.

“You guys, we need to talk,” my mom said.

“Listen up, Zak,” Mr. Merril said.
 

My mom looked anxious, and I had to admit, I was beginning to feel a little anxious myself. Since when did Zak’s dad and my mom talk to us together? Like they were some kind of unit? That was weird. My mom spoke again, directly to me this time.

“There’s been an emergency. I’m going to have to go away for a few days,” my mom said.

Though we all stood fairly close together by the pool and there wasn’t much noise except the squawking of parrots, I wasn’t sure that I had heard my mother correctly. We had a plan. What was this about her going away for a few days? What emergency was she talking about it?

“Me too, Zak,” Mr. Merril said. “Zoe’s mother and I have been called away unexpectedly and we’re trying to figure out what to do with you two.”

“Can’t we come?” I asked.

“That’s one option,” my mom said. “But I don’t know how much fun you’re going to have. We’re going to be moving around a lot and there won’t be a great hotel. But we can do that if you want. Though I warn you, I’m a little concerned it won’t be nice for you at all.”

I thought about it. “What’s the other option?” I said.

“You could stay here at the hotel,” my mom said. “A local nanny service has recommended a wonderful woman who can look after you two. You can order room service. Swim. Relax. Take pictures. And we’ll both be back before you know it.”

“Cool,” Zak said.

“I thought you’d like that,” Mr. Merril said.

I, however, wasn’t so sure.

“Don’t worry, Zoe,” my mother said. “I’m not going anywhere until we have a plan.”

I paced as my mother packed. I felt unsettled. And it wasn’t just the strange dreams or my hallucination when I dove to the bottom of that pool. The way I felt seemed embedded right into the walls of the hotel. Our hotel room that had seemed so promising earlier, now felt a little different. A little hollow. It was true, it also felt a little more exciting, but a little strange too.

“Are you sure?” my mother asked.

“I’m sure.”

“Because you can come if you want. What I’m saying is, I want you to come if you want. I’m just worried you’ll have a bad time.”

“It’s only three or four days right?”

“Three or four days, max. The nanny’s name is Anu. She comes highly recommended. She’ll stay in her own room so you’ll have your privacy, but she’ll be there to help you with whatever you need.”

“OK.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure, Mom.”

The truth was, I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t sure at all. But I could tell that my mother thought this was for the best. And I wanted to give her what she needed. I knew her work was stressful enough without me tagging along if I didn’t have to.
 

“Thanks, Zoe.” She hugged me. “I promise I’ll make it up to you as soon as I’m back. And be nice to Zak. Like I said, he’s been having a hard time adjusting since his mom and dad split. You two will be looking out for each other.”

“I know.”

“OK then.”
 

My mother smiled. I loved to see my mother smile like that even though I was missing her a little already. I couldn’t help but wonder if this was happening because of Zak’s dad. Did my mom like him? I didn’t know. But I told myself it would be OK if she did.

“And Zoe, there’s something I want to talk to you about.”

I looked away. I was pretty sure I knew what my mother wanted to talk about. A little while ago I had stumbled upon some new information about my adoption and I wanted to ask my mom the whole story. I had hinted at the subject before we left and my mother had told me that we would talk about it soon. Now it seemed my mother was ready to talk about it right there in the hotel room except the funny thing was, I wasn’t ready anymore. Not right then. Right then I just didn’t want to think about it at all.

“Yes, Mom?” I said.

My mom must have read the pained expression on my face because she changed the subject.

“When we get back, we’ll do that tour I promised, OK?”

“OK.”

She kissed me and zipped her suitcase shut.

“Now, walk me down. We can meet Anu together.”

Anu was a slim young woman with raven-black hair and a broad smile. She looked neat and organized. She was younger than I thought she would be, and, I suspected, probably more fun. Zak was down there as well, chewing on a bag of sunflower seeds. We stood just inside the lobby doors, looking out onto the porte-cochere. Zak’s dad spoke first.

“Anu here has volunteered to look after you guys. Be nice to her, that’s the main thing, and she’ll be nice to you,” Mr. Merril said.

“We’ll be back before you know it,” my mom added. “The area we’ll be traveling in is remote. If by chance we get mobile phone coverage, we’ll call. Now, Zoe, I want you to promise me, you’ll be good and listen to what Anu says.”

“I promise, Mom.”

“You too, Zak,” Mr. Merril said.

“No problem, Dad. We’ll listen to Anu.”