Forest Fire by J. Burchett

CHAPTER
ONE
    â€œReady?” yelled Ben, pointing at the huge wave rolling towards them.
    His twin sister Zoe grinned. “Ready!” 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 Gran’s cottage by the sea.
    â€œAwesome,” exclaimed Ben, gathering up his board. “I felt like a killer shark!”
    Zoe looked at him in his shiny purple wetsuit, his brown hair sticking up in salty spikes. “A killer grape more like!” she laughed.
    â€œBen! Zoe!”
    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.
    â€œIt’s Erika!” gasped Ben, as they watched the cat spin to a sudden halt, sending spray into the air. “Looks like we’re off on another Wild adventure!”
    Ben and Zoe’s 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. They’d 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 Stephen’s second-in-command, stretched out a hand and helped them up the ladder.

    â€œIt’s good to see you again,” Erika shouted, as they sped across the waves. “Dr Fisher is really pleased with your work for Wild. This time he’s trusting you with a particularly difficult task, but as usual he wants to tell you himself.”
    She handed Zoe an envelope. “Here’s your clue.”
    Zoe tipped up the envelope and a glass eyeball fell into her hand. She showed it to Ben.
    â€œDeep brown iris,” he said, inspecting it closely. “Looks almost human – except the white’s quite dark.”
    Zoe peered at it. “Do you think it’s one of the apes? That would be so cool.”
    She knew what to do next. She looked at the catamaran’s control panel and located a small hole next to the radar screen.
    â€œLet’s find out,” she said, slipping the eyeball in.
    â€œGreetings, godchildren!” 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.
    â€œGood old Uncle Stephen!” said Zoe. “Eccentric as ever.”
    â€œReady for a really urgent Wild mission?” asked the image. Then it chuckled. “I don’t know why I’m asking – of course you are. Never had such eager operatives as you two! Well, there’s an orang-utan in trouble in Borneo. Tell you more when you get to HQ.”
    Uncle Stephen gave a cheery wave and disappeared.
    Zoe sighed. “An orang-utan. Wow!
    They’re such lovely, gentle creatures.”
    â€œAnd so endangered,” added Ben. “Did you know that –”
    â€œTheir habitat is threatened by logging?” interrupted Zoe.
    â€œI was going to say –”
    â€œThat they can use sign language? I knew that, too.”
    â€œNo. I was about to say that they’re more intelligent than you,” 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 hadn’t been used for years. As